Cultivation Of Coders

Chapter 1: Farming

(Due to the numerous complaints and criticisms from my peers, I would like to make a statement at the beginning. This work is a popular novel, and the code is only meant to enhance the reading experience. I strive for complete understanding. If you want to see the framework algorithm, haven't you spent enough time at work? Before criticizing the technical aspects, please take a look at the last message related to the work! It's enough that everything has escalated to become a professional issue!)

At the foot of a small, short green mountain, there was a field of rice paddies. The rice was like green jade, clearly not ordinary.

Unlike ordinary rice cultivation, each rice plant here had its own hole, without a trace of weeds, and the plants were sparsely distributed.

At this moment, it was the beginning of the afternoon, and the weather was hot.

A semi-grown teenager wearing a green shirt struggled to carry a bucket of water and came to the rice plants. He carefully poured the spiritual water from the bucket into the dedicated spiritual water hole next to the rice plants.

Because of the hot weather, the green shirt was already soaked, and there were dense beads of sweat on his forehead, rolling down his cheeks and dripping off.

As he bent down to pour the water, drops of sweat from his forehead and nose fell into the water hole.

One bucket of spiritual water per rice paddy was the standard requirement, it could be more but not less. If there was a shortage of spiritual water, various problems related to the lack of spiritual energy in the rice plants would occur.

Although the spiritual well was not far from here, it was not close either. On average, it took about six minutes for a round trip.

In one hour, he could only take care of ten plants, and that was under the condition of not taking a break.

The spiritual rice he was responsible for covered an acre of land, exactly one hundred plants.

Under the condition of not taking a break, it would take nine to ten hours to complete the task.

Taking into account rest, meals, and weather conditions, he had to work for about twelve hours a day, which was half of his time, just to complete the task.

After Zhang Deming finished watering another bucket of water, he couldn't stand the heat anymore. He put down the bucket and sat under the shade of a tree.

He had been living like this for ten years, and he had been in this world for eighteen years.

In the first few years after coming to this world, life was still relatively okay.

When he was eight years old, his spiritual roots were detected, but his aptitude was a bit poor, with only twenty-one points in spiritual roots.

The maximum limit for spiritual roots talent was one hundred points, and twenty-five points was the minimum standard for Heavenly Spirit Sect to accept disciples.

With twenty to twenty-five points, one could only start as a miscellaneous disciple, and the range of acceptance for miscellaneous disciples was only within the vicinity of the Heavenly Spirit Sect's mountain gate.

However, Shuanghe Town where Zhang Deming was located was not within this range.

Originally, he had no hope of entering the sect, let alone becoming a miscellaneous disciple.

But what was quite ironic was that his childhood fiancée, the little girl he had been raising as his daughter-in-law since childhood, Pan Juan'er, unexpectedly had fifty-nine points in spiritual roots.

Such talent could be considered a genius even in the Heavenly Spirit Sect.

Therefore, under Pan Juan'er's crying and fussing, he was accepted as a miscellaneous disciple as an exception.

Speaking of this, Zhang Deming felt a bit emotional.

In his previous life as a programmer, he was slow to react in terms of relationships between men and women.

He didn't get married until he was twenty-eight years old and had only been in love once.

In this life, after experiencing the pain, he consciously started raising his own little daughter-in-law after he knew about their arranged marriage, hoping to have a cultivation plan.

Originally, he thought that in this life, he would have a childhood sweetheart, a lifelong partner, and a happy and fulfilling life.

But unexpectedly, when she was only eight years old, the age of indefinite imprisonment, his daughter-in-law flew away.

After that, there were no more dramatic events between him and Pan Juan'er, and ten years seemed to have disappeared from each other's lives.

The elder who accepted Pan Juan'er as a disciple when she entered the sect clearly told Zhang Deming at that time that the engagement and such had been canceled.

With the mindset of an adult, Zhang Deming also understood the relationship. Although it was a bit regrettable that the loli he raised hadn't grown up yet and had already left, that was all.

Having experienced a world in which material desires ran rampant and blind dates demanded cars, houses, and bank accounts, he felt that such reality was just a drizzle.

In the blink of an eye, ten years had passed, and he had no further involvement with that girl.

Due to the initial concerns, Pan Juan'er's master sent him to a corner of the mountain gate to cultivate spiritual rice on Xiaoqing Mountain.

Following the example of his superiors, he was strictly disciplined in the beginning.

But because of his adult mindset, he managed to get through it without much difficulty.

After the attempts to curry favor with the management failed, he was forgotten. Although they still treated him fairly strictly, it was within the normal range, and nothing unusual happened afterwards.

Time flew by like water, and in the blink of an eye, ten years had passed.

In these ten years, he had already reached adulthood, but as a transmigrator, he had been waiting for a Goldfinger for a whole eighteen years, yet there was no sign of it.

"Damn it, wasn't it said that every transmigrator has a Goldfinger?

Could it be that I'm just a low-quality one?

Or was it just a coincidence that I transmigrated into this congested convertible car when I died from overwork while coding?"

Zhang Deming looked at the rice fields in front of him, feeling frustrated.

All those thoughts about "my fate is in my hands, not in the heavens" and "I was born to be extraordinary" had been smoothed out by this acre of land and a hundred rice plants over the past ten years.

Life is like a butcher's knife, if you can't cut it all at once, you can only slowly grind away the edges.

Not to mention anything else, he couldn't even develop some industry in this historical world.

Because in these ten years, he discovered that the sect could easily handle many of these arduous tasks using formations or other methods, but they didn't do any of it.

These various tasks were all deliberately calculated, one could say intentionally so.

After taking a moment to rest, Zhang Deming looked at the last ten stalks of spirit rice.

Zhang Deming gritted his teeth and encouraged himself, saying, "Put in more effort, and we can rest in the afternoon."

Due to the hot weather, as an experienced rice farmer, Zhang Deming would start working in the early morning. Therefore, during the hot afternoon, there would usually only be fifteen or sixteen stalks left, which would take less than two hours to complete. This was a method of cultivating rice that he had developed over the past ten years.

Over the past ten years, from being scolded every day and having unsatisfactory harvests every season, to now being able to save up a small amount of spirit stones as a reward surplus twice a year, Zhang Deming had come a long way.

After giving himself a pep talk, Zhang Deming resumed working.

After watering another seven or eight stalks, when it was about to end, a young man walked over from the miscellaneous yard next to him.

He wore the same grayish-blue clothes as Zhang Deming and was about the same age, but he had his hands behind his back and held his head slightly high, with a smug expression on his face.

"Oh, Ming-ge is still watering the plants. Tsk tsk, put in more effort, there are only two left, and then you can rest for half a day," the young man teased Zhang Deming.

The young man's name was Zong En, and he was also a miscellaneous worker. The two of them had known each other for quite a few years.

Not only were the rice fields adjacent to each other, but even the miscellaneous workers' houses were also next to each other.

However, Zong En had a spiritual root score of 28, which was much better than Zhang Deming's. The seven-point difference in talent had created the gap between the two of them.

Zhang Deming knew the other person's personality well and didn't respond. He continued to water the last two buckets, because if he responded, the other person would boast for the whole afternoon.

Over the past six months, Zhang Deming had personally summarized a rule.

After watering the last two buckets of water, I looked up and saw that Zong En was already prepared.

In his rice field, there were two buckets of water, one at each end, filled to the brim.

After he finished preparing, he pinched his fingers in a gesture, chanting something under his breath, perhaps noticing Zhang Deming's hesitation.

He became more energetic, even chanting the incantation out loud instead of muttering it.

"This brat is getting more arrogant. It's just a Minor Cloud and Rain Spell. Who cares! One day, I will master it too!" Zhang Deming muttered with a hint of jealousy.

The Minor Cloud and Rain Spell is a type of cultivation technique, the most basic and lowest level. As long as you can sense qi and become a junior apprentice with some spiritual power, you can cast it.

The prerequisite is that you can learn it!

And the difference in labor between Zhang Deming and Zong En is because of it, because of this small technique.

Without the technique, it takes half a day of exhausting work to barely meet the basic needs of the spiritual rice, watering a hundred buckets of spiritual water in twelve hours.

But if you learn this Minor Cloud and Rain Spell, with just two buckets of water, you can supply the spiritual energy to the spiritual rice through the cloud and rain technique, which is even more effective than watering.

Because what the spiritual rice lacks is not water but spiritual energy, the Minor Cloud and Rain Spell has more spiritual energy than the spiritual well water. The reason why a special water pit is made next to the spiritual rice field is to facilitate water usage.

If you work diligently, like Zong En, casting the spell three times a day, the spiritual rice will grow even better.

As a result, there is a distinct difference between the spiritual rice in the two fields.

After all, this guy learned this spell half a year ago, just when this season's rice was being planted. The advantage accumulated over half a year is now visible to the naked eye.

As Zong En's hands flew and his mana surged, he felt a sense of pleasure and pride on his face.

He released his not-so-abundant spiritual power, and the spiritual water in the two buckets floated up, forming a small cloud about five or six meters above the rice field.

Then, strands of fine rain fell in the rice field, causing the spiritual rice to sway slightly as if cheering.

After a moment, the cloud released all of its water vapor. Zong En clapped his hands with a smile and said, "Done."

Turning his head, he noticed Zhang Deming's uncontrollable envy. Zhang Deming wiped the nonexistent sweat from his forehead and sighed, "Ah, it's really hard!"

Zhang Deming had a black line on his forehead. You've been showing off for half a year, and it's not over yet!!!

His lips moved slightly, but in the end, Zhang Deming took a deep breath and decided not to argue with this little brat. Moreover, he heard that this guy was about to break through to become an intermediate apprentice.

At this time, it's better to be accommodating. Don't ruin the relationship of several years. Let him show off. It's his turn to show off.

"Let's go, let's go back and practice together. I heard you're about to break through. When you promote to the outer sect, don't forget us old folks." Zhang Deming picked up the heavy bucket and spoke.

This bucket for fetching spiritual water is half an artifact, extremely heavy. Most of the effort in watering is spent on this. Who knows what Dao Sect was thinking.

"Haha, definitely, I won't forget, I won't forget the care you all have given me over the years."

Zhang Deming didn't say much after hearing this.

He had been here for ten years and was considered an old-timer. How many people had he sent to the outer sect? More than just a few.

But there were no more than three people who came back to visit.

And no one came to take care of them.

And the outer sect disciples, although they were highly regarded in their menial tasks yard, were actually just the lowest level disciples of the Heavenly Spirit Sect.

Although he knew this in his heart, maintaining interpersonal relationships was still necessary. After all, having one more familiar outer sect senior brother would add weight to his status.

It may not be of much use to say it out loud, but in their menial task yard, these things are still considered a weight.

This is also the reason why Zhang Deming can now live a peaceful and stable life in the menial task yard without being exploited.

Where there are people, there is conflict.

As one of the few long-serving workers in the Xiaoyingshan Rice Field Menial Task Yard, although he hasn't reached the point of exploiting others, the various background relationships make those who exploit others dare not have any ideas about him.

In fact, with his current status and relationships, he could easily enter the ranks of exploitation.

But he fully understands the principle that what goes around comes around.

Having the soul of an adult, without the situation of having a Goldfinger, he would rather live a honest life.

There is no need to take advantage of those small shortcuts, after all, who knows if the person being exploited is a useless talent?

It doesn't require a genius, just the ability to infiltrate the outer sect. After a period of time, he will naturally have the ability to deal with these menial workers.

In the past ten years, Zhang Deming has seen such things more than once.

If he had more time, he might take risks for the sake of cultivation.

But the spiritual energy in the menial task yard is thin, and the cultivation plate in the room can only gather enough spiritual energy for an hour of cultivation after running for a day.

After that, if he wants to cultivate in the air of the menial task yard?

The effect of ten days of cultivation is not comparable to the sum of this one hour, which shows the importance of cultivation resources.

And the cultivation plate is a strict rule of the sect, prohibiting any form of encroachment for any reason.

This is one of the few ironclad rules with the most enforcement power, and almost no one dares to touch the red line.

So those who can persist in cultivating in the air of the Miscellaneous Duties Courtyard are all strong individuals.

Zhang Deming, on the other hand, does not belong to that group. He only cultivates for three hours a day, with two hours of standard cultivation and one hour of consolation.

This extra hour is Zhang Deming's self-consolation, indicating that he does not belong to the ranks of the mediocre.

Over the course of ten years, it is equivalent to a few more sessions of standard cultivation, better than having none at all, but the improvement in cultivation is almost imperceptible.

The two returned to the courtyard. At this time, the weather was still hot, and most people had just finished their lunch break and started cultivating.

Due to the weather, many people, like Zhang Deming, chose to work early in the morning. Therefore, after lunch, they were all tired and needed some rest.

Zhang Deming originally belonged to this group as well, but today was his eighteenth birthday, and his mind was unusually restless.

That's why he didn't rest for long after lunch and chose to finish the afternoon tasks ahead of time.

The two chatted along the way, and after years of living together, Zhang Deming was skilled at finding topics.

This is also the reason why Zhang Deming has a certain network of relationships. He doesn't want to be a closed-off person like in his previous life.

The two returned to their respective rooms in the courtyard. Zong En needed to start replenishing his spiritual power to prepare for the evening spell.

Unlike cultivating with a full dantian of spiritual power, spells consume the spiritual power in the dantian.

Under the thin spiritual power in the Miscellaneous Duties Courtyard, one can slowly replenish their spiritual power while cultivating.

As for the reason, Zhang Deming is not clear, but he roughly speculates that it may be related to the difference in spiritual pressure. Who knows?

During the process of replenishing spiritual power, cultivation will also slightly improve.

Three times a day is roughly equivalent to a day's worth of normal cultivation, compared to those who cannot perform spells. This is why Zong En works so hard and insists on casting spells three times a day.

(End of this chapter)